Product Description

Originally conceived as a 'track to run to' for a Nike campaign, 45:33 has become a career defing opus for New York hipsters LCD Soundsystem. Essentially it's a few tracks combined to make an unconstrained disco epic. The first half is thewarm up, with gentle pianos and smooth synths, while the second half provides the build up and crescendo as cosmic synths collides with DFA's trademark punk-funk. This is an astonishing and daring record that breaks all the rules.

Track Listing

1. 45:33
2. Freak Out/Starry Eyes
3. North American Scum
4. Hippie Priest Bum-out

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8370 in Music
• Released on: 2007-11-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
45.33 might well confuse some of the music purists convinced that great art and commerce must never mix. This 45-minute suite of music, you see, is the result of a commission from sportswear company Nike, who hired LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy to write music to accompany the perfect exercise workout. Murphy, perhaps aware that the gradual, building tempo and euphoric highs of a great run could be seen to closely mirror the dancefloor dynamic of a great DJ set, agreed, and the result is perhaps the most synthetic, funky, altogether club-like records to appear under the LCD name to date. Commencing with rising analogue synth notes, the piece shuffles into life on a sultry Studio 54 tip, a mid-tempo disco beat decorated with handclaps, euphoric piano, and soulful vocals. Before long, though, it’s shifting and mixing, first through an alternate instrumental cut of "Something Great" (which would later appear in full on LCD’s 2007 album Sound of Silver) then through phases of kosmiche electronica, velvety soul, and brass freak-outs–-all intent on keeping the tempo pumping. Also included on this CD issue of 45.33 is three bonus tracks, the conga-tapping "Freak Out/Starry Eyes", a bleepy, dubbed-out mix of "North American Scum", and the bouncy bass grooves of "Hippie Priest Bum-Out". –-Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Like a Modern Oxgene
Well not really.

Part one is really just a short introduction. Not really brilliant but a good addition to this piece. Part two stands out, soulful vocals and nice looped piano. Really quite mellow. Part three involves a lot more electronic instruments and includes some good bleeps and noises. Part four really builds on part three addidng funky electric piano and more synthersisers and some psychedelic vocals and nice bass. Part five is up tempo with lots of hi hats low vocoder parts and some nice brass. Part six brings it right back down and is really mellow with chimes and soft chords.

A pretty good track to listen to that really builds up then comes right back down. Good work but nothing thats going to be called classic. Worth a listen because its an interesting piece but not some thing you'll find your self desperately wanting to play again and again.

The bonus tracks are a nice addition. I didn't really enjoy the jittery Freak Out/Starry Eyes but North American Scum Dub is a brilliant track. Really funky sounds from the outset and it really gets going. Probably the best track on here. Hippie Priest Bum-Out is a standard dance punk track from LCD. Nice drums and percussion with a good bass line. Strange sounds all over the place. More like some thing from their first album.

Buy this if you haven't heard the main track 45:33. The additional stuff is nice but if you get the chance buy it individualy as you will save the money. I'd say miss out Freak Out/Starry Eyes as its a waste of time in my opinion.

Similar to what has been done before, but still good
45.33 can't really be described as
'quite unlike anything else you will probably hear all year'.

This however, doesn't mean that it ain't worth listening too. While it is indeed 45min and 33 seconds long, the listener is essentially presented with 4 to 5 songs that are impeccably mixed from to one another in a very progressive fashion that would be well suited to running - hence the early support from Nike. It can therefore be split into three phases; The warm up, the vigorous exercise, the cool down.

If you like LCD sound systems current output, then this should please - the concept is not very original, but the progression from beeps and buzzes to full blown rhythmic bliss makes me smile. It doesn't gets boring despite going on for nearly an hour. The only other piece of music that springs to mind is the full version of Autoban by Kraftwerk (it only lasted 20 min and dragged to be honest).

The bonus tracks maybe just make this worthwhile purchase for those who already have the MP3 of the title track.

intriuging and brilliant
The curious gestation of this record takes another step. Original commissioned as a digital download for Nike, "45.33" was envisaged as a continuous, one piece epic to soundtrack your corporate-sponsored exercise. Now, with LCD Soundsystem being en vogue and this years "Sound Of Silver" being the music of choice for advertising execs, hip-but-past-it commuters, and Vice-reading Indie Kids, their label has seen fit to finally issue this intriguing and brilliant experiement to be masses.

Now appended with some extra - and slightly incongruous - extra tracks, the main draw, and artistic triumph of "45.33" is the song itself. "45.33" is one long (and I mean long) largely instrumental mood piece that works only in it's entirety. In the olden days this would be known as Prog : where a song would last the length of a vinyl LP and only end because you couldn't fit any more than 23 minutes onto a side of a 33rpm vinyl disc. In this golden age of CD (and the unlimited size MP3) technology has now freed the artist to do whatever they'd like. What "45.33" is is a brave, and interesting instrumental expedition into the far reaches of music. Whilst the piece works as a cohesive whole, it also forms several separate chunks (as you would expect).

The modern song works in a variety of forms. Verse, chorus, middle eight, break. It's really laughable : these parts are then arranged to repeat a number of times. Devo wrote an album of around 40 songs - each of one intro, one verse, one chorus. Rather than repeat themselves they bend the form into new shapes. The medium is the message. By the same token, "45.33" takes each part of each song, and repeats it with a minimalist variation so it evolves and changes imperceptibly over the duration of the track. Motifs return from twenty or thirty minutes earlier in a new context, and the song resembles nothing so much as a highly danceable, groove-lead, ever changing and evolving piece of liquid music. Over the several musical identities, "45.33" constantly evolves, changes, leads and moves forwards. Many of the pieces here are unique to this release, whilst a couple of others are recycled, reworked, and recognisable from their other albums, albeit then melded to create a seamless uniform single mood piece.

"45.33" is quite unlike anything else you will probably hear all year : artistically uncompromised by the convention of form to create a undoubted and interesting musical success. Think of it as a companion piece of the earlier "Sound Of Silver", where both pieces of material are cut from different sides of the same musical coin, and you'll be pleased. Well worth investigating.